LS-Vega

I just picked up a pair of 243 castings to replace my 317's. My block is a 2001 6.0 which has never been touched, has thirteen thousand miles on it. Any suggestions on which head gaskets and head bolts I should buy? This is a weekend bracket drag car, no street driving if that matters. Thanks

Doug G

No juice or boost ?

I'm thinking ARP's and stock GM gaskets should be fine.

G Atsma

^^^^^^This^^^^^^^
Should be more than sufficient.

LS-Vega

no, juice or boost, but was thinking M1

LS-Vega

Right now this is with the 317 heads and a Texas Speed MS4 cam. All I'm planning on changing are the heads and torque converter, going from a 6000 stall to a 4900. The 6000k was way too loose and the motor just didn't have the torque, I had to leave off the transbrake @ 5600 to get a decent launch.

Doug G

I had a 5000 stall built for my combo with a 150 shot planed (but not hit yet). It is fairly tight compared to the 4000 I had in there (not a nitrous converter).

Just something to think about

LS-Vega

Doug, am I thinking of this right? My old Gen1 SBC combo was a 409 cu.in. /PowerGlide with the 6000rpm converter, 4.30:1 gears, 28" slicks, 5800rpm transbrake launches 1.46 60' times. Now with the LQ4 the hp and tq. isn't nearly where the 409 was, but I used the same converter, trans, rear gear, tire...launch rpm was turned down to 5200, the sixty foots are a best of 1.66 My thinking is swapping to a converter with a smaller stall speed (because of the lack of tq from the motor) I should see an improvement, I understand it won't be back to the 1.4x range but at least into the 1.5's and hopefully the rest of the run should pick up. To be honest, the old converter was a 5500 stall, over the last two seasons it started to become looser, maybe that's my whole problem. Thanks for the time.

Doug G

Sorry, last converter was 4500 sloppy stall.

But yes, sounds like a converter issue, with all the same but the motor (maybe a trans starting to go ??)
If all was the same except HP/TQ, the higher TQ would stall higher.
When I went to a different converter, the builder spec'd the same stall ratio I had, but in a 9.5" Vs. the 8" I had. I asked for it to be a 5000 being a 9.5" (I got 1 free re-stall anyway IF I wanted/needed it)...First full pass I went faster than my old combo (406" Vs. 364")